most Colorful twitter account!

http://twitter.com/#!/limokon

check this out! it's beautiful, but don't look at it for too long or you might feel dizzy...

Enjoy!

Fanta Fruit Punch

Today's discovery!!

Eatliz - Lose This Child (Official video - HD Version)

stop motion animation music video from art rock group Eatliz, directed by the Grammy nominated directors Yuval & Merav Nathan ("Her Morning Elegance").

Synopsis:

Sometimes a beach isn't just a beach. As the sun goes down over the ocean, the sand comes to life and takes on the forms of an entire mini eco-system of aquatic life. Sea turtles are born, eels emerge to pursue their prey and Mother Earth orchestrates it all. Credits:Directors: Yuval & Merav Nathan - http://www.onewingfly.comAnimators: Yuval Nathan, Guy Ben Shetrit, Moshe Zilbernagel, Talia TzurGrip and Rig: Rafi NathanScript: Yuval and Merav Nathan, Nadav Ben Simon, Guy Ben shetrit

Frankenstein Trailer

琵琶湖（打出浜）

Instant Food Update

A few pictures of some of my favorite (instant) noodles.

 This is a new release from the maker nissin, the "DEMIGLACE NOODLE", that one don't need boiled water, just some tap water and a 4 minutes in the microwave will do the job. 

It fast good but it's very different from the regular cup noodle. It's more like pastas, like tagliatelle, and it comes with sauce (demi-glace) not soup.

Chili Tomato, Tast like it sound, chili with tomato sauce/soup. No big surprise the but taste nice, a must try!

Milk Seafood, very good mix, taste more like cream sauce than milk (which is probably a good thing).

Chili Tomato, Tast like it sound, chili with tomato sauce/soup. No big surprise the but taste nice, a must try!

Cheese Curry, Cheese mixed with...curry! A bit more cheese and it'd be perfect.

UFO, no soup here, one of the best kind of instant Yakisoba that you can find on the market. My fav!

UFO Special Okinawa. Very Different from the original but not too bad! Only available on the BIG series.

And to finish, some Udon, Kitsune Udon. A classic from the brand.

Photos: © Greg Penet 2011-2012 

Calligraphy

Practiced a bit today, I'm kinda happy with it.

Not there yet but it was a fun session.

書道の練習

I had a lot of free time in my hands today, so I though why not practice calligraphy for a bit... haven't done it for like half a year... 

The result??

A major failure..., but I'm sure if I keep practicing like 2 or 3 times a week, it will comeback in no time!!

I also would like to thank Lawrence Barrow ( 慈光) for his beautiful Haiku, 信号に　停まりて見れば　山は秋 (SINGO NI TOMARITE MIREBA YAMA WA AKI).

copyright ©Penet Greg 2011-2012

京都駅から清水寺までの散歩

Yesterday I went for a "walk" with my girlfriend, we left our home in Otsu-shi around 11:30 so we could arrive at Kyoto Central Station by noon. From there we walked all the way up to Karasuma-Gojō Street, where we bumped into my friend Charlie, who was on his way home after school. So the 3 of us when to shijo to eat some Ramen for lunch, we went to 一風堂 (ippudo), the place was packed and we had to wait a few minutes but it was worth it! The noodles were great and the soup delicious.

After lunch we went for a walk through one of numerous covered market streets that lead to kawaramachi street, from there charlie went for a coffee so we, Yoko and I, continued our journey to 八坂神社 (yasaka shirne) which is located east of the Gion Shijo Station, from there we walked all the way up to 高台寺 (kōdaiji) and then we took a small market street that did lead us to our final destination, 清水寺 (kyomizudera). The view from up there is really nice, you have a great panorama of Kyoto, I'm supposed to go back up there in a couple of weeks when the tree's leafs are turning red, I'll make sure that I post a few pictures in here.

On our way down we shopped a bit, bought a few tea utensils so I can make some at home. We also stopped for a bowl of 抹茶 (macha - Japanese green tea) and 和菓子 (Japanese sweets) in a small tea house with a nice and relaxing little garden.

And then walked back down to Kyoto station where we finished our journey around 8pm.

Copyright © Greg Penet 2011-2012

T-Shirt Design

Not much to report tonight, no game review or food related post but I thought I'd instead share something that I've done a few months ago, the "Ford's Moonshine" logo t-shirt!!

Not much to say about it, it's a too colors vector logo that I made as a part of a design project of mine.

All right reserved. ©GregPENET 2011-2012

Cup Noodle

Let's talk fine food and gastronomy for a bit.

I'm lucky enough to live with a "Japanese 5 stars chef", let me explain.

My girlfriend (soon to be wife^^) is an AWESOME cook! and I always enjoy, whatever she makes, like there is no tomorrow.

That being said, I can now talk about the "other kind" of food that I have a big thing for... CUP NOODLES (the awesome one produced by the Japanese company NISSIN)!!

Depend on where you live around the globe there is specific flavors to different areas. Here in Japan the full line up count up to 14 different taste (so far, apparently there is going to be 3 new flavor to come out with the next few months), the 3 most common that you can find in any super markets or convenience stores are, Plain (Soy sauce with pork & shrimp), Seafood and Curry, then depends to what store you go and to what they have in stock you might find: 

Chili Tomato

European Cheese Curry

Kimchi

Salt and Olive Oil (which I ate today for the first time and was surprisingly delicious...)

Miso

Creamy Chicken

Hot Caribbean Seafood

Bacon Soy Sauce

Cream Sauce

Brazilian Chicken

Fried Rice

They use to make one called "Milk" and "Mild Seafood" that were quite good but I haven't seen those around for some times, I wonder if they stopped the production or if it was for a limited time only.

I also found that the 3 main flavors (plain, seafood and curry) have been released in a "light" version, with half the calories but equal taste (so they say...), I got one today, haven't eaten it yet but I'll for sure drop a few lines about it once I get down to it.

This year (2011) is the 40th anniversary of the brand, so NISSIN organized the "40th anniversary CUP NOODLE EXPO" her in japan, one was held in Osaka and the other one in Yokohama (near Tokyo). For the occasion they gave away some collectible items and invited the public to participate to a few games "noodle related".

If I find or hear anything about those 3 new flavors, supposedly coming out, I'll surely post it here.

Manga Rock Mf App Review

Manga Rock MF is an manga reader type of app, available for iPod, iPhone and iPad, with an extensive library of over 3000 manga, the possibility (if you unlock that option, for $3) to download any titles you want so you ca read it on the go without any internet connection (for those of us that don't own a 3G device). But if you decide to stick with the free version of the app and read you favorite manga from the comfort of your home, it works pretty well, the chapters load fast and so far I didn't experiment any crash or issues with the app itself.

As for the library, it's pretty wide. With all the major titles (Naruto, One Piece, Bleach and so on...), regularly updated for latest issues and the possibility to access old issues as well so you won't miss a single page!

           

  

        

Size: 10.2 MB

Language: English

© Not A Basement Studio

You must be at least 17 years old to download this app.

Frequent/Intense Profanity or Crude Humor

Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence

Frequent/Intense Sexual Content or Nudity

Frequent/Intense Horror/Fear Themes

Frequent/Intense Realistic Violence

Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes

Frequent/Intense Simulated Gambling

Frequent/Intense Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Downloadable here: MANGA ROCK

pictures: © Not A Basement Studio

Reckless Getaway Game Review

I've been browsing through the app store a lot lately trying to find games to play on my iPhone and as everyone knows already there is A LOT of games on it and not all f them are good...

I've recently came across one that caught my attention. Reckless Getaway.

Available for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad (require iOS 3.0 or later), Reckless Getaway is a fun little game, really easy to play at first but that gets more challenging through the levels!

The set is quite simple, you play a bank robber that have to escape from police, but to make things more interesting your goal it's not only to escape but also to create a big mayhem, wrecking as many cars (police included), collect points (destroying things) without destroying your own car!

Hours of fun, easy to pick up and play, even for just a few minutes.

Specifics: 

- 16 Tracks

- 2 game mods

- Simple and effective controls

- Game Center enabled

- Price: Free

- Size: 81.5 MB

- Language: English

- Seller: Polarbit AB

- © 2011 Pixelbite AB

- Rated 9+ for the following:

Infrequent/Mild Realistic Violence

Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence

Downloadable from the iTunes app store or here (click the link) Reckless Getaway

Work in progress for M.C.G.S

Been working these past few days on a visual identity for M.C.G.S (a collective of DJ based in Fukuoka, Japan). 

Here is  what their next album might look like.

© 2011-2012 Penet Greg

SEGA Game Center

Today I went to one of those SEGA Arena entertainment center near my place to kill a few hours and loose some coins... ;)

I enjoyed spending a few hours (and a couple of thousand yen...) on a "multiplayer" Super Mario coin game. the game is a mix between a board game (with virtual dices), a UFO catcher and a coin game machine. The goal is basically to get mario to the end of each level by throwing a token in one of the two blue slot (see pictures) to make Mario throw a dice. there is also many mini games included, that are quite fun and challenging.

 

セガアリーナ浜大津

A brand new blog!!

Not sure yet what I'm going to be posting here, probably things related to my life in Japan, or simply things that I enjoy and want to share with the world!

I'll try to update it on a dally basis, with news and pictures, probably a few articles here and there, let's see where it goes.

So without further ado, let's get started!